The Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, deferred its decision on the matter till Friday, directing the transport department to check whether the procurement is affected due to the high court's order.

The assurance was given as a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar appeared inclined to stay the entire tender floated on March 15 for procurement of 1,000 standard floor buses.

The first lot of 251 buses out of total 1,000 cluster scheme buses will start arriving in the capital by September. Three concessionaires have been selected by Delhi government’s transport department to run a total 1,000 buses under four different clusters.

The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) claimed that it was trying to provide all facilities except wheel chair provision in its new standard size buses, to be procured, as required under the Persons with disabilities (equal opportunities, protection of rights and full participation) Act, 1995.

This figure falls short of a March 2016 Transport Ministry advisory to the states and union territories to ensure that 10 per cent government-owned public transport is accessible to persons with disabilities by March this year.

It is undisputed before us that there are over 60 lakh two-wheelers in Delhi. The number also consists of two- wheelers which are very old and their emissions are beyond prescribed limits," a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said."

In June this year, the Delhi Cabinet had approved the transport department’s proposal to authorise DTC to call tenders and sign the agreement for installation of CCTV cameras in 6,350 DTC and cluster buses, utilising the Nirbhaya Fund, to be provided by the central government.

The court said the environment cess fund of Rs 700 crore was created for the purpose of improving the environment and mitigating pollution and the proposal to use the fund amount for buying buses "amounts to diversion of funds" from the purpose for which it was formed.

A bench of acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar put under scanner the constant shortage of buses meant for public transport, saying the authorities may be committing contempt by failing to fulfill the target set by the Supreme Court 19 years ago.